Alan Wenkus is an American screenwriter, film producer and a former VP of programming for Premiere Radio Networks. Wenkus has been nominated for several awards for his work in television and film including a Writers Guild of America Award, the NAACP Image Award and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He's best known for co-writing and Executive Producing Straight Outta Compton .
Wenkus got his start in radio out of college. While performing stand-up comedy, he was hired to work on the Hot 97 Morning Show in New York City. He wrote for the show and performed a variety of on-air characters while also helping to create nationally syndicated comedy services that included "Radio Hotline" and "The Daily Comedy Exclusive." He launched the comedy and prep radio services at Premiere Radio Networks and worked with hundreds of morning radio shows across the country helping them to stay topical and entertaining.
Wenkus was a writer and segment producer for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno from 1998 to 2008 contributing skits and jokes for the nightly monologue. In January 2017 it was announced Wenkus was writing and executive producing the new hip-hop gangland TV miniseries Haitian Jack produced by Radar Pictures and Interscope Records co-founder Ted Field and directed by "All Eyez on Me" director Benny Boom. Wenkus also created and Executive Produced the ABC event series Cola Wars with Lionsgate Television. In 2021 Wenkus and his company Handstamp Studios partnered with Shark Tank’s Daymond John to create a scripted series about the launch of John’s iconic apparel brand FUBU.
Wenkus is known as a researcher and producer. Among his screen credits, Wenkus co-wrote and co-executive produced Universal's Straight Outta Compton , the N.W.A biopic directed by F. Gary Gray. [1] Wenkus has also written several other screenplays in development including a remake of the film, Dolemite , and recently researched and wrote the screenplay, Teddy Ballgame, about the life of Boston Red Sox slugger and war hero Ted Williams. His upcoming projects include the authorized John Fogerty Creedence Clearwater Revival biopic Fortunate Son.
As an uncredited “script doctor”, Wenkus has done rewrites and polishes on several studio film projects. He also co-wrote the screenplay Private Resort for Johnny Depp. The film also stars actor Rob Morrow and Andrew Dice Clay.
On May 13, 2015, it was announced at the Cannes Film Festival that Wenkus was writing and producing the big screen biopic, No Show Jones, about country music legend George Jones. [2]
In September 2015, Wenkus signed a deal to write the screenplay to the New York Times bestseller, Code Name: Johnny Walker. The book was co-written by American Sniper author Jim DeFelice.
In January 2016, Wenkus was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as part of the screenwriting team that wrote Straight Outta Compton.
N.W.A was an American hip hop group formed in Compton, California. They were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential groups in the history of hip hop music.
Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by American gangsta rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced by N.W.A members Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A members Ice Cube and MC Ren along with Ruthless rapper and unofficial member The D.O.C. Not merely depicting Compton's street violence, the lyrics repeatedly threaten to lead it by attacking peers and even police. The track "Fuck tha Police" drew an FBI agent's warning letter, which aided N.W.A's notoriety, with N.W.A calling itself "the world's most dangerous group."
Danny Strong is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. As an actor, Strong is best known for his roles as Jonathan Levinson in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doyle McMaster in Gilmore Girls and Danny Siegel in Mad Men. He also wrote the screenplays for Recount, the HBO adaptation Game Change, The Butler, and co-wrote the two-part finale of The Hunger Games film trilogy, Mockingjay – Part 1 and Mockingjay – Part 2. Strong also is a co-creator, executive producer, director, and writer for the Fox series Empire and created, wrote and directed the award-winning Hulu miniseries Dopesick.
David Koepp is an American screenwriter and director. He is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial success in a wide variety of genres: thriller, science fiction, comedy, action, drama, crime, superhero, horror, adventure, and fantasy.
David Leland was a British film director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.
Andrea Berloff is an American screenwriter, actress, director, and producer. Berloff is best known for writing the screenplays for the drama films World Trade Center and Straight Outta Compton. She received an Academy Award nomination for writing Straight Outta Compton.
Kay Cannon is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actress. She is best known for writing and producing the Pitch Perfect film series (2012–2017). She made her directorial debut with the comedy film Blockers (2018). Cannon was also a writer and producer for the NBC comedy series 30 Rock (2007–2012) and the FOX comedy series New Girl (2012–2014). She created, wrote and produced the short-lived Netflix comedy-drama series Girlboss (2017).
Anthony McCarten is a New Zealand writer and filmmaker. He is best known for writing big-budget biopics The Theory of Everything (2014), Darkest Hour (2017), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), The Two Popes (2019), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022). McCarten has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including twice for Best Adapted Screenplay, for The Theory of Everything and The Two Popes.
Patrick Melton is an American screenwriter, producer and novelist.
Michael Green is an American writer and producer. In addition to writing for television, Green has written or co-written several feature film screenplays, including Logan, Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049 and Murder on the Orient Express, all released in 2017. For Logan, which he co-wrote with James Mangold and Scott Frank, Green was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Nicholas Stoller is a British-American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the comedy films Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), its spin-off/sequel Get Him to the Greek (2010), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), Neighbors (2014), its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and Bros (2022). He also co-wrote the screenplays for the films Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), Yes Man (2008), The Muppets (2011), its sequel Muppets Most Wanted (2014), and Sex Tape (2014), as well as co-creating the television series The Carmichael Show (2015–2017), Friends from College (2017–2019) and Platonic (2023–present).
Tony Roche is an English television, radio and film comedy writer and producer, best known as a writer of the HBO comedy Veep, the BBC Television series The Thick of It and its film spin-off In the Loop.
Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American epic biographical drama film that depicts the rise and fall of the hip hop group N.W.A under the management of Jerry Heller. It was directed by F. Gary Gray, from a screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff and story written by executive producers S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus. Co-produced by former members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright, Gray, Matt Alvarez and Scott Bernstein, with MC Ren and DJ Yella serving as creative consultants, the film stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. as his father Ice Cube, alongside Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr. and Aldis Hodge as Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella, respectively, and Paul Giamatti as Heller. Rounding out the rest of the ensemble cast include Marlon Yates Jr, R. Marcos Taylor, LaKeith Stanfield, Alexandra Shipp and Keith Powers.
Jason Mitchell is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller Contraband (2012), and the neo-noir Broken City (2013). He is best known for portraying rapper Eazy-E in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton. The film is considered his career breakthrough, for which he received numerous award nominations including the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture. Mitchell has also appeared in the Key and Peele comedy film Keanu (2016), the Netflix film Barry (2016), James Franco's The Disaster Artist (2017), and the blockbuster Kong: Skull Island (2017). He has also appeared in critically acclaimed film such as Kathryn Bigelow's crime drama Detroit (2017), Dee Rees' historical drama Mudbound (2017) and Janicza Bravo's black comedy Zola (2021).
Susanna Fogel is an American director, screenwriter and author, best known for co-writing the 2019 film Booksmart and for co-writing and directing the 2018 action/comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me. Her many accolades include a DGA Award and nominations at the BAFTA Film Awards, the Primetime Emmy Awards and the WGA Awards.
S. Leigh Savidge III is an American screenwriter, film producer, director, and founder of Xenon Pictures, a production and licensing company.
Taylor Sheridan is an American writer, producer, director and actor. He is best known as the co-creator of the television series Yellowstone and creator of its prequels 1883 (2021) and 1923 (2022).
Michael Mitnick is an American playwright and screenwriter.
Will Speck and Josh Gordon are an American filmmaker duo who generally work in the comedy genre. They have directed six feature films together. Their accolades include an Academy Award nomination.
Brian Tucker is an American screenwriter and executive producer best known for his work on Broken City and Secret Invasion.
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